


superlatives

by dazedlight (opinionoutpost)



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Fluff, High School AU, M/M, Sort of????, Yearbook AU, boys need to use their words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-04
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-10 10:57:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3287717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opinionoutpost/pseuds/dazedlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'“We're not even <i>dating</i>,” Calum says, exasperated, ignoring his friends as he raises his head once more and throws his hands in the air. “Shouldn't the Best Couple actually <i>be</i> a couple?”'</p>
<p>Or, Calum and Ashton win the award for Best Couple in their school yearbook even though they are not, in fact, a couple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	superlatives

**Author's Note:**

> just something silly and fluffy i wrote on the bus home today/to distract myself from the monster of a muke fic i've been working on for the past month or so. unbeta-ed and written in literally an hour on my phone so please excuse any mistakes. based off of a really fricken cute prompt i saw on tumblr ages ago and apparently lost but it!! is!! so!! cute!!

“This is the best day of my life,” Michael announces.

“Please stop,” Calum groans as he buries his face in his hands.

“No, this is literally the best of my life. I have never been happier before this day.”

“I hate you.”

“Lucas! Tell me this is not the greatest day on earth.”

“Hm?” Luke hums as he approaches their lunch table, rubbing blearily at his eyes. Asshole probably slept through study hall again.

“Just agree with me. Say it's the best day of your life.”

“This is the best day of my life,” Luke chants tonelessly as he flops down next to Michael, immediately nuzzling his face into his neck and surrounding him with his long arms.

Calum raises his head to scowl at both of them. “You suck. You and Luke. You suck so hard, and I'm never speaking to either of you ever again.”

“Stop being so dramatic.” Michael rolls his eyes, squirming in Luke's lap as he tries to stand. Luke's eyes pop open, and he presses a kiss to Michael's jaw before resting his chin on his shoulder and turning his sleepy gaze to Calum.

“What's happening?” he mumbles drowsily, blinking slowly.

“You both suck,” Calum informs him.

“Yes, we do,” Michael declares proudly with a wink, making Luke blush and hide his face in Michael's hair while Calum groans again.

“Please go be gay for each other somewhere else.”

“You love it,” Micheal tells him but shifts out of Luke's hold anyway and despite the latter's protests.

Scrubbing a hand over his face, a muffled, “I still don't know what's going on,” comes from Luke, seemingly now more awake without Michael cuddled up in his lap.

“The gods have spoken,” Michael crows as he digs through his bag.

“The gods have a shitty sense of humour,” Calum says morosely.

“Still completely in the dark here,” Luke points out.

Calum let his arms collapse to the table as Michael cackles and pull this year's yearbook out of his bag, quickly flipping to the superlatives page.

“I won Best Smile?” Luke says, and Calum doesn't need to see his face to know he's probably wearing a small, pleased grin.

“Yeah, obviously,” Michael replies almost dismissively. “And Nicest Eyes, but that's not the point.”

Calum lifts his head enough to see Luke preen at the compliments while Michael focuses on flipping pages. Eventually he finds what he's looking for, triumphantly spinning the book around for Luke to see, barely containing his laughter.

Luke examines the book for a moment, eyes roaming the various pictures of their classmates with awards stamped next to their smiling faces. Finally, he sees it – how could he miss it when it takes up almost an entire _page_ – and his eyes immediately shoot up to look at Calum, a smile pulling at his lips that he's trying desperately to conceal.

“Oh, Cal,” he settles on, which is just – it's almost worse than Michael's snickering in the background.

He tucks his head back into the safety of his arms, moaning out, “This is awful.”

“It's not that bad,” Luke reasons. “It's cute.”

“Please stop talking.”

“You think he'll finally make a move now?” He hears Michael stage whisper loud enough for the whole damn world to hear him.

“Don't be a dick,” Luke chides.

“We're not even _dating_ ,” Calum says, exasperated, ignoring his friends as he raises his head once more and throws his hands in the air. “Shouldn't the Best Couple actually _be_ a couple?”

Luke smiles sympathetically while Michael laughs again, that asshole.

“Fuck you both,” Calum grumbles as he stands abruptly, gathering his things.

“What did I do?” Luke cries.

“You fuck him, so you're like one person, and he's laughing at my pain so fuck you.” He points at Michael, then Luke. “And fuck you.” 

He hoists his bag onto his shoulder and starts towards the cafeteria doors. He can skip band class today; he's earned it. 

“That doesn't even make sense!” Luke calls after him.

“Neither does the universe!” Calum responds without turning around. 

He's pushing the door open, trying to figure out if it's feasible for him to get a hold of every copy of the yearbook and burn it, when he hits something, hard, something that makes a heavy _thump_ as it hits the ground. He pushes the door the rest of the way open and finds – just his fucking luck – a boy, a cute boy, _the_ cute boy lying on the ground, rubbing his forehead because Calum just _hit him with the door oh my fucking god._

“Shit,” he hisses, instantly kneeling down to collect the boy's books while he sits up, still massaging his head.

“I'm so sorry, dude,” he apologizes quickly, trying to pick up the boy's things as fast as he can. His cheeks are burning, he can feel it, because _of course_ it would be this boy, of-fucking-course it would because the universe thinks it's so damn funny, messing with his life like this.

“It's fine,” the guy says, waving him off, and smiling, all dimples and probably literal sunshine. He catches Calum's eyes and there's a flicker of recognition, which, on any other day, Calum would be thrilled about but today is the worst, and he's not prepared to deal with any of this.

“Hey,” the guy says as he stands. “Calum, right? We took Bio together last semester I think?” He smiles again and holds out his hand to shake. “I'm Ashton, if you don't remember.” Then he giggles, _actually giggles_ and just – why is Calum's life this way.

“Uh, yeah, no, I remember you,” Calum stutters, shifting the books in his arms to shake Ashton's hand. “We, uh, you and I – that is, we – we, um, we studied together. For the final.”

“Right, yeah!” Ashton says with a nod, smiling again as if cramming for the bio final is some fond memory to look back on instead of the weirdest experience of Calum's life. He'd been about halfway to a breakdown when Ashton had stumbled upon his hiding spot in the back of the library and set up shop next to him. They were both useless at memorizing the different parts of the nervous system but perfectly proficient kissers as, after almost three hours of mostly failed studying, Ashton had shoved all their books to the side and just sort of clambered into Calum's lap and started making out with him. He just about failed the final, but it was worth it.

But then winter break happened, and Calum didn't even really know who Ashton was, other than the cute guy he sat behind in Bio. He didn't have his number, and Ashton didn't appear to have facebook or twitter, just an instagram where he occasionally posted pretty photos of landscapes and blurry trees. He'd spent most of his time off checking his page to see if he'd posted anything new, but it remained dormant all break. And then once school started back up again, they didn't have any classes together. He saw Ashton in the halls sometimes, but he was always either with people or was rushing to get somewhere. So he'd “pined” (Michael's asshole words, not his) for the past few months, getting little satisfaction from the infrequent glimpses he got of the boy, flitting from class to class. He wanted more, but that didn't seem to be a possibility, until the stupid fucking yearbook had to go and announce them as Best Couple and this – this is not at all how he planned it.

“I haven't seen you around in awhile,” Ashton says conversationally.

“Different schedules, I guess,” Calum replies. He's still holding on to Ashton's books, and he doesn't know how to give them to him without it being awkward. He shuffles them to his other hand, hoping he'll get the hint and take them back so he can just leave already.

“Right, yeah, that would make sense,” Ashton says easily. A lull forms in the conversation, and Calum is so damn _fidgety_ , his legs twitching as he tries to hold himself still. He wants to scream and take off down the hall, bury himself so deep in the ground no one will ever find him. But he doesn't, just stands there, avoiding Ashton's pretty, pretty eyes.

“So the yearbooks are out today,” Ashton pipes up, and Calum's head snaps to him. Please, God, no.

“Yeah.”

“Have you got yours?” Ashton asks.

“Uh, no, not yet,” he lies. Maybe if he pretends he hasn't seen it, Ashton will pity him and pretend the same.

“Oh,” he says and looks a little deflated. “Well, um.” He shuffles his feet, burying his hands in the pockets of their hideous uniform pants. “We're in it,” he finally admits quietly.

Shit. “We are?” His voice is weirdly high, and he clears his throat, hoping to bring it back down.

“Uh, yeah. Page one-oh-two.”

“Oh. Okay, cool. I'll, uh, check it out once I pick my yearbook up.”

They stand their awkwardly in silence. Calum keeps glancing at the door, the clock, the flyers for the school dance plastered all over the walls, just anywhere that isn't Ashton.

“It's the Best Couple page,” Ashton finally blurts, but it comes out rushed so his words all run together, almost unintelligible. Calum's face ignites, and he immediately looks at his feet. He hears Ashton take a deep breath before he's saying, “We're, um, we're the Best Couple. Officially, I guess.”

Calum continues to stare resolutely at his shoes, at the scuffed toes, the frayed laces. This whole scenario is so absurd, and he can't help it, the nervous giggle that bubbles up his throat and out of his mouth.

Ashton just stares at him as he laughs, and he looks almost crestfallen. It slaps the humour right out of him, his face sobering at Ashton's down-turned eyes.

“We're not, though,” Calum says, forcing himself to look at Ashton until their eyes meet. “A couple, I mean,” he clarifies after a moment.

“Right,” Ashton acknowledges.

“We just made out in the back of the library one time.”

Ashton's cheeks flush and he turns his head to the side, embarrassed. “Right.”

“Which, by some miracle, someone saw and decided to capture on camera, which is really kind of creepy if you think about it, and probably a violation of our privacy.”

A smile tugs at Ashton's mouth, and it makes Calum's stomach flip.

“Who even allowed that picture to be published?” Calum continues. “It's basically soft-core porn.”

Ashton laughs, and it's even brighter and better than Calum could imagine.

“I mean, we're both pretty hot. I don't blame them for wanting two hot dudes making out in their yearbook to, you know, spice things up a little.”

“Stop,” Ashton groans as his cheeks flush even deeper. “This is so embarrassing. Let's please not relive my one episode of promiscuity.”

“You mean you _don't_ kiss random dudes in the back of the library in your spare time?” he says, a smile forming on his own face. “I feel so honoured.”

“Please,” Ashton pleads with a laugh. “Stop.”

And Calum does, mostly because he's looking at Ashton with a look that's disgustingly fond. But after a moment, he can't help it, curiousity getting the better of him.

“Why did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Kiss me.”

“Oh, um...” He sounds surprised, like he thought, maybe hoped, that Calum really wouldn't bring it up. “Because I wanted to,” he finally admits.

“You wanted to?”

“Yeah.” He nods. “For awhile, actually.”

“You wanted to kiss me. For awhile,” Calum repeats as his brain processes all of this new information.

“Yeah.”

“Do you...” He stops, clears his throat. “Do you still want to? Kiss me?”

Ashton smiles, a tiny, bashful thing, peeking up at him through his lashes. “Yeah,” he says softly, just above a murmur.

“Holy shit,” Calum sighs. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.”

“Um,” Ashton says.

“We – you – I can't believe – I have been wanting to ask you out for _months_ and I – we should just go make out right now. Like, right now. I'm – I could've been kissing you for literally months now. This dumb ass superlative could've been _real_ ,” he says almost desperately, waving Ashton's books around. Ashton laughs, and it distracts him for a moment before he's stepping closer into Ashton's space. The air around them changes, and he's staring at Ashton's lips and Ashton's staring at his before he leans down a fraction, letting Ashton come the rest of the way, pressing up into the kiss.

They stay like that for God knows how long, just pressed together innocently. Calum's arm ends up wound around Ashton's waist while Ashton's hand rests at the nape of his neck, and they fit together so well that there's not a doubt in Calum's mind that they are, in fact, the Best Couple.

**Author's Note:**

> you can drop by my [tumblr](http://peachflush.tumblr.com/) if you have any comments/questions or if you just wanna chat!


End file.
